Brief Career Overview: A late starter to tennis, Helen played her first national event at 17 yrs old. Reaching the quarter finals in 3 out of the 4 events showed her she could compete with the country's best. She earned all-american honours at the University of South Carolina, was one of ten national finalists in the prestigious NCAA woman of the year award and graduated with honors with a BA in Journalism. Turned pro in 1996 after university and quickly earned world rankings in singles and doubles. In 2000 she and regular partner, Victoria Davies won through the qualifying rounds of Wimbledon doubles to earn their place in the main draw. They also competed there in 96, 98, and 99. Helen now has 16 satellite doubles titles to her name. In this last year Helen has put in some of her best singles performances reaching semis of challenger events and finals of satellites. Sitting at her highest ranking at the age of 29 and with several wins over players in the top 200 there could still be more to come.

For sure, she is a great doubles player. I think she is also the type of person to get along well with Tian Tian. Great doubles team .

Firstly Ondraskova's win. Sanchez Lorenzo didn't look fired up at all, and hardly ventured off the baseline during the match.
In comparison, Ondraskova showed great mobility around the court, indeed I heard a fellow spectator say "she's lightning quick! one of the fastest players I've seen".
Incidentally, the trainers were on the court three times in total, twice for Ondraskova (for a cut finger!) and once for Sanchez Lorenzo, who then at 3-4 down in the second set, took a time out and returned with strapping around one of her thighs.
I personally find it very hard to see Sanchez Lorenzo ever returning to the top 100, but who knows, I've been wrong before!
Fokina's win against Blahotova had less incident in it, with, the more powerful (both in her serve and her general play) Russian Fokina dominating the match almost throughout (aside from a lapse of concentration in the second set). Blahotova was slightly disappointing and didn't appear to possess any particular weapons
Annoyingly, the LTA now put the two doubles matches on simultaneously, so you can only watch one. I decided to watch the Syssoeva/Mihalache V Yan/Zheng match. It was a complete contrast of styles, with lanky Syssoeva and her partner Mihalache facing the diminutive but more mobile Chinese girls.
I actually thought winning in two sets was slightly unfair on Yan and Zheng, but in the end, the crucial factor for me was Syssoeva's booming serve, which caused Yan and Zheng many problems.